This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Getting Started

SketchUp's 3D capabilities are what set it apart from the rest of the pack of drawing tools. You're going to see how easy it is to create 3D models in SketchUp. Although you might think that you need to draw every edge to make a model 3D, that's not true—SketchUp operates in a very clever way to give you 3D power.

All you need to do is to draw a 2D surface (and remember, such surfaces can be aligned to any plane). Then you use one of SketchUp's 3D tools, such as the Push/Pull tool, to pull it into 3D. Thus a rectangle becomes a cube, for example.

The Push/Pull tool, which works on any surface that's in one plane, is the primary 3D tool in SketchUp. This tool lets you push or pull surfaces into 3D in a way that's quite impressive. But other tools in SketchUp have 3D power as well, such as the Move tool, which we'll also see here.

You can use the Move tool to move objects around, of course. But when you first use the Select tool to select an edge, you can use the Move tool to pull out that edge in such a way that the connected surface follows, while still being anchored on the opposite edge (think of opening a cabinet door).

We'll see both the Push/Pull and Move tools in this lesson, along with some auxiliary tools, the Select tool and the Eraser tool.

This is a big lesson for us, because it's all about 3D, and that's also what SketchUp is all about—3D.